Tag Archives: star choice

The new guide interface is more intuitive, delivering an
industry-leading customer experience. The HD Guide user interface offers
many improvements when compared to the SD Guide, including: faster
navigation, redesigned menus to ensure optimal usability and enhanced
shortcuts/preference functionality. The HD Guide is available for 6XX
series receivers only. Legacy receivers (including 5XX HD receivers)
will not be updated.

With the launch of HD Guide, two features on the 6XX series receiver have been retired:

Interactive Weather Application.

Instant Pay-Per-View (IPPV) ordering: the IPPV order feature has
been removed from the 6XX series. The phone line will remain for caller
ID only. IPPV will continue to be available on all legacy receivers.

There are six new major features introduced with the HD Guide:

1. Customizations

Three different font sizes are available, controlling the number of
rows of data in the guide, plus two different program colouring options.
These settings can be changed at any time by pressing the following:
Options // Preferences // User Settings & Appearance.

2. MiniTune & MiniPlay

MiniTune: You can press the ‘B’ button from the guide to immediately
tune the video window to the selected channel, while maintaining your
current position in the menu.

MiniPlay: For customers with an HDPVR 630, MiniPlay functions the
same way as MiniTune, but within your list of recorded programs. You can
press ‘B’ to begin playback of the selected program in the video
window, while maintaining your current position in the PVR list.

3. PPV Store

A new way of browsing available PPV movies! Selecting ‘PPV Search’ from the Pay-Per-View (PPV) menu bar allows you to:

Narrow results by genre.

Show clear ordering instructions and ID above the movie description.

Be notified that the purchase has been successful once it’s been ordered through the IVR.

Purchased program are identified by a checkmark in the guide, PPV Store, and ‘Upcoming Airings’ screens.

4. Smart PVR Technology

Our HDPVR has an overlooked feature: the ability to look for the
episode on multiple channels. This feature, in conjunction with the fact
that Shaw Direct carries channels from every Canadian time zone,
effectively eliminates recording conflicts.

The HDPVR allows you to record from ‘HD only’, ‘SD only’, or ‘All channels’, rather than a single channel.

Descriptive information written in user-friendly language.

You can also edit your recording preferences by pressing ‘Enter’ on the program and selecting the new menu option.

When customizing a particular recording event, you can now access a
‘More Channels’ selector to change the channel you want the recording to
take place on.

5. Multi-User and Single User Modes

Multi-User Mode: Up to eight users can have their own preferences
applied at login, in addition to parentally-defined permissions, locks,
and restrictions.

The current profile can be changed at any time by pressing the FAV button on the remote. Each profile can have a unique PIN.

Users can be copied to a USB key for transfer to another satellite receiver.

Single User Mode: It uses the same approach as before, wherein a
single set of restrictions is applied consistently and unlocked
individually on an ad-hoc basis. While Multi-User mode generally does
not present a PIN challenge upon encountering locked content,
Single-User mode does.

When migrating from SD Guide with the Parental Controls enabled, you will be placed into this mode by default.

You can switch between Single and Multi-User modes whenever you want. If set, a PIN is required to make this change.

6. Notification Bar

The Notification Bar replaces the ‘Alert’ (!) icon used in the SD
Guide and will notify you of Caller ID, PPV purchases, reminders or
auto-tunes, dual recordings, and more. It also displays the signal
strength, Internet connectivity status (for VOD), HDD space (HDPVR only)
and number of active reminders.

Press the ‘Down’ arrow while watching TV to show the notification bar.

Other enhancements:

The A, B and C buttons on the remote control serve as shortcuts in a number of different windows – try them out!

New ways to search for content: Keyword Search and Category Search. Press Menu // Search to see the different categories.

Ah, the Calgary Stampede – When the
population of Calgary increases by almost a million people for ten days
of cowboy hats, deep-fried food and twangy country music.

Toted as ‘The Greatest Outdoor Show on
Earth,’ the Calgary Stampede does not disappoint. Held on the Stampede
Grounds for 102 years, there are so many things to see and do. People
come from literally all corners of the map to participate. Two of our
favourite reasons to keep coming back: The Rodeo and The Midway (food and fast rides. What could go wrong?)

The temperature almost every day we went
surpassed 30 degrees Celsius with only a few clouds to give us a
well-wished break from the searing torment of the sun. If you don’t have
something that closely-resembles sun stroke by the end of the day
you’re not stampeding properly.

The Stampede always kicks off with a
monstrous parade that blocks off most of downtown for hours. We got wise
and went down to the parade route the night before to set (read, tape) chairs down in order to get front-row seats, went home for some excited ‘squee’s’
and a quick sleep before returning at 5:30 the next morning to defend
our turf. The parade didn’t start for another four hours – Queue over-caffeination and screaming children.

When the parade did start, we had a
really good time. Took lots of amazing pictures and got to wave at
William Shatner, the Parade Marshall. You can check out the entire
parade album on our Facebook Page.

Our main goal of visiting the grounds was to try all the wicked new food that had been posted on the Calgary Stampede website for
months prior. We saddled up and headed down to the grounds. You can
always tell when Stampede as the ratio of cowboy hats and boots goes up
wherever you look – trains become more difficult to board and suddenly
the view for shorter people like me turns into a sea of pressed felt and
plaid.

There are so, so many things to do at the
Calgary Stampede. I’ll be concentrating on food for this blog post.
Sorry if you were looking for reviews on the rodeo and Super Dogs, but
I’m sure there are lots of other blogs out there for you to imbibe.

Let’s get to it!

Red Velvet Mini Donughts

Photo Credit: D. Koch 2014

I was really
excited to try these little wonders. Everyone who we had talked to
prior exclaimed how rich and dense they were. I’m a fan of true Waldorf
red velvet cake which, due to food rationing during World War II, was
coloured with boiled beet juices and was extremely moist and sticky.

These were neither moist nor sticky. We
were handed a stick of doughnuts that looked suspiciously like regular
mini-doughnuts and were assured ‘the red was inside’. Nope. No red. More
like a light-tinted rose on the insides of them. The flavour: Less than
that of a regular mini-doughnut with the only saving grace being the
cream-cheese frosting they had dunked the entire stack into before we
received them.

We still ate all of them. Why waste food?

Ranking: 1 out of 5 Cowboy Hats

Takeaways: Disappointing reality after reviews, no colour

Deep-Fried Cheezies

Photo Credit: D. Koch 2014

What could go wrong? Oh, right –
Everything. These looked and smelled delicious upon receiving them.
Battered lightly with some pieces of that mystery green vegetable you
find in instant soup broth. Things were going great until we took the
first bite.

Did they mistake Cheezies for Styrofoam
peanuts? These were horrible! I tried eating the breading from around
the now rock-hard remains but the ‘cheeze’ in the Cheezie had melted,
gone nuclear and created some sort of biome inside of the
battered-atmosphere. It was like lighting an aerosol can of cheese on
fire and devouring what’s left (don’t try this at home). At least the fried bits of dough on the bottom were tasty.

I was so happy to find the booth selling
deep-fried cookie dough! Delicious little balls of sweet goodness dusted
with confectioner’s sugar… until you bit into it and realized there was
a molten mass that resembled a microwaved tube of Keebler Elves. The
dough collapsed, my mouth, face and shirt were flooded with goo of all
shades of brown and my only reaction was to cough powdered sugar all
over everyone within a ten-foot radius. The dough was sweet and
resembled a chocolate-chip cookie but the fact that the treat drooled
all over the place after the breading was broken was a total ‘nope’ for
us.

Ranking: 1 out of 5 Cowboy Hats

Takeaways: Brown goo, a new take on the ‘cinnamon challenge’ with confectioner’s sugar

Scorpion, Mealworm & Cricket Pizza

Photo Credit: D. Koch 2014

Maybe I’m rating this higher than a 1 because I was really hungry (read, hangry).
I’ve eaten bugs before on purpose; Candied grasshoppers and
cockroaches, teriyaki scorpions and centipedes among other weird things
so my expectation for the pizza was fairly positive. I ordered a slice
for $10 (TEN DOLLARS!) and was greeted with mealworms standing
up on their end, wingless crickets and one dilapidated scorpion. I don’t
know what tasted foul, the cheese or the bugs. Everything was dry and
dirt-flavoured. For ten bucks, you could at least put some bugs on a
primo piece of pizza. The scorpion still had some substance, but the
crickets and mealworms were so dry and hollow it was like biting into a
stale chip filled with air. This is the only food I did not finish
simply because I could have gotten better pizza from a garbage bin.

Ranking: 2 out of 5 Cowboy Hats

Takeaways: Tastelessness, legs stuck in my teeth, high price

Maple Bacon Doughnut Cheeseburger

Photo Credit: D. Koch 2014

This was both fulfilling and disgusting
all in one quick-serve meal. I’m one of those horrible Canadians who
dislikes anything maple. This bad-boy was a cheeseburger with maple
doughnuts acting as buns. The patty, cheese and bacon were all pretty
tasty. The fact that the grease from the meat was melting away the maple
glaze, creating a sticky coating of sweet/savoury that made my palate
shriek with confusion and horror was enough to keep me from eating the
entire thing. Thankfully I had two other members of my team to help. It
was actually fairly comical how fast I requested a hand-washing station
once we were through with the ‘burger’.

Ranking: 2 out of 5 Cowboy Hats

Takeaways: Maple, proximity of hand-washing station from food stall

Flower Cotton Candy

Photo Credit: D. Koch 2014

Another high-priced item, ringing in at $10 for a whopping $0.10 of sugar, the remainder of the value was found in the labour (each piece took about five minutes to craft).
I got to pick my colours and watched the master at work. They were
using coloured brown sugar rather than white which gave the flower a
very robust, deep flavour. The three of us destroyed the bloom in under a
minute. R.I.P., cotton candy art.

Ranking: 3 out of 5 Cowboy Hats

Takeaways: Complexity, high price

Perogie Poutine

Photo Credit: D. Koch 2014

Oh my gosh, perogies. This in itself is
enough to get me intrigued. Smother them with fries, cheese curds and
gravy? Where’s the wheelchair because I’m going to be too large to walk
myself off the grounds. The perogies were pretty tasty, along with the
sausage that was smothered in sour cream and gravy. The poutine portion
itself was a tad disappointing. Poorly-cooked crinkle-cut fries, very
little cheese and watery gravy lapped in the bottom of the cardboard
tray after we had massacred the meal. I’d go back for a second one, just
no fries please.

Ranking: 3 out of 5 Cowboy Hats

Takeaways: Limp fries, perogies in anything (mmm…)

Mini Doughnuts

Photo Credit: D. Koch 2014

Ah yes mini doughnuts. A midway staple no
matter where you are in North America. The company who technically
invented these little treats and patented the machine they use graces us
with their presence every year on the Stampede midway for $5 a dozen.
Best use of money ever! They’re hot, sweet and greasy. A perfect balance
of cake and crisp, fried outside. Everyone knows the smell of
mini-doughnuts, I hope you don’t pass these up the next time you smell
them.

Ranking: 4 out of 5 Cowboy Hats

Takeaways: Deliciousness, price, midway classic

Deep-Fried Macaroni & Cheese

Photo Credit: D. Koch 2014

Triangles of Heaven is what these should
be called. Delicious, piping hot macaroni and cheese breaded in fine
crumb served with nothing but napkins. They’re not too saucy to be a
mess but not too dry to be disappointing. We all burned our mouths on
them though, so be careful because I’m pretty sure they’re baked in a
nuclear reactor. They were pretty greasy, served in a tray of seven with
four napkins. I used a napkin per and was still whining for another
hand-wash station. If it wasn’t for the last entry, I would have gone
back for a second order. Mmm cheese…

Literally just like Grandma used to make.
Delicious hand-cut fries, thick gravy, aromatic bread stuffing, real
cranberries and a mound of juicy, well-seasoned turkey breast that
reminded us of Christmas and Thanksgiving rolled into one takeaway
container. This was another dish served directly from a volcano-oven, so
we had to take turns playing ‘hot-potato’ with the container until it
decided to cool down. (Side note: You don’t place your food down at the
risk someone else will smell what’s cooking and approach asking to
share). This had all the right herbs and spices, the fries were
golden-brown and crisp, the gravy had an amazing fat ratio that made it
stick to everything. Oh – and cheese curds! Hello.

Ranking: 5 out of 5 Leopard-Print Cowboy Hats (because why not)

Takeaways: Turkey. Poutine. Cheese.

All in all, we spent a lot of money on
food that would make any nutritionist have nightmares and cold-sweats.
But it was totally worth it. My jeans are tighter now than ever and I’m
proud of my Stampede Belly. Want to see our Food & Fun gallery?
Check out the Facebook Album.

Tickets for the 2015 Calgary Stampede (July 3rd-12th) go on sale October 6th, 2014. Hope to see you, cowboys and cowgirls!